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Ask Slashdot: Good Subscription-Based Solution For PC Tech Support?
New submitter byrddtrader writes: My parents are getting close to the their 70s and neither one of them is particularly tech savvy. Since my teenage years I have been tech support for the family, but now that I am older I can not be at their beck and call every time they inadvertently download something they should not, or the printer stops working. Given the amount of time that I have worked with them I don't feel that it is realistic that I will be able to convey the information they need to become self-sufficient. What I am looking for is a service that will be able to assist with any software PC related issues, viruses, printers and the like. Currently they are using a tech firm out of India (iYogi) that does unlimited support for a few hundred per year per machine -- which is fine, though they are big on the up-sell. They tend to push their own virus protection software, and attempted to sell my Dad, who has 500Mb of documents, a 3Tb external hard drive because they said he needed it. Currently the computers they use are ones I have built. Maybe the best solution would be store-bought PCs that offer additional tech support at a price. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Look in your local yellow pages or equivalent. I live in a small metropolitan area and know of three or four local firms here that I would consider reputable.
And "a few hundred per year per machine" would cover a lot of local support.
"Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it." - George Santayana
Best money I ever spent on my parents (and me). Apple handles EVERYTHING -- their tech support is amazing for people. Don't subject your elderly parents to a Windows PC offshore tech support experience where they play the blame game (MS says call manufacturer, and then manufacturer says call MS). Or better yet, just get then iPads...
my thoughts: don't do it. don't get a service. you are their service. you are their health-care. you are their lawyer. yeah, it's like that. it's YOU.
I offer free service to many older folks in my community (56 years in the business; you do the math), and don't charge them for calls less than 30 minutes. 80% of the time it's helping them figure out what to do, not fix something like a broken drive. The other day, a friend (a year older than me) asked for help, I started CHKDSK, he bought me lunch, and we had a great time. I DO charge for heavier stuff (like people who consistently do the same dumb thing...like acting as if they understand what an "Active partition" is, for example, and try to make every partition "Active"), and for initially configuring a new computer so it will remain reliable for a long time.
These off-shore services always break something that will force a new, billable call in a few weeks, so they can boost revenue. I've NEVER known any reliable, phone-support, reputable organization, unless you have an annual contract.
Kudos to you for taking care of your elders; so many adults don't.
For me the calls from mom didn't stop until I got her a Chromebook and an iPad to help her dump the virus-ridden PC.
i'll probably get modded down for this, but whatever...
get them an iPad or a new iPad pro. stay within the ecosystem, also get an apple wifi point and a printer that supports AirPrint. they'll be delighted and their calls to you will drop 90%. easiest purchase ever, trust me. Note you can set up the apple wifi directly from the iPad, you don't need to deal with a pc or mac.
I have five for my family. I do zero maintenance. The only thing that I still need to do occasionally is mess with the printer (I had to do this more frequently with windows). Chromebooks can only print over cloudprint. If the maker of the printer stops supporting the protocol (such as Canon did for several printer models), it can get messed up. If you have a printer that can print in many ways (mail, usb key, cloudprint etc.) there are more options.
I know you're asking to pay to offload this duty, but I have a suggestion that perhaps you should consider. I would encourage you to consider keeping those duties for yourself, and add a new application to help protect them all the way around.
Deep Freeze by Faronics - http://www.faronics.com/produc...
This product will let you create the perfect configuration for your parents, then 'freeze' it in place. They can have places for documents to go that you can edit and change and so forth. But, if you get infected with something, or an application installs something extra you didn't want, or your browser gets fouled up, you reboot your computer and Deep Freeze makes your system revert back to what it was before those changes took place.
If they aren't changing or updating their system regularly, they just wait until you can do that for them, on your schedule. If they have problems, they reboot and get a working computer back. You'll still want to backup their documents, but you can use a cloud solution for that, so it'll be set-it and forget-it, except when it's time to pay the yearly bill.
It's juts something to consider. Again, I know it's not the hands off solution you're thinking about, but as your parents get older, they'll appreciate your help all the more. It lets you still use this to be connected to them, and feel more like you're taking care of them than pushing that duty off on someone else. Your time is worth way more than the money you spend on them.
Awk! Pieces of eight. Pieces of eight. Pieces of seven... ERROR: General Protection Fault. [Paroty Error.]
Yes it can be annoying to have to deal with their constant tech troubles, but you probably owe them (I have 3 young kids, and they definitely owe me big time). Let's face it, while people are still very active in their late 60's, you should enjoy it while it lasts because most people will really start to slow down in their early to mid 70's. As people age they become much more susceptible to scams (as you've noticed), so the only person you can really trust is you (or your siblings). I think that in 5 or 10 years you might have wished you could have spent more time with them.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
why not just get a chrome book? They'll have email, netflix, Word processors, etc and if it breaks the OS is in ROM. Hit a few buttons and it's back to normal. Just make sure they're using cloud storage and their set.
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I'm a retired computer guy (71), and I do a ton of work for my senior citizen neighbors. I suggest a $20/hr "donation" to the R&R fund for me and my wife, for an hour or two of services that would cost them $80-$150 at any computer shop. If the person is really poor, or doesn't tumble that I accept "donations", then I just do the work for free. I go to their homes, and fix their problems (all over the map :). I am viewed as a local treasure by all the old folks I know, as most of them haven't a clue how to fix their problems. I don't advertise because I get enough by word-of-mouth to keep me as busy as I care to be, as I do other things too :). But if your parents have a retired computer guy in their neighborhood, perhaps they can establish a relationship with him/her. I would work for free, as I don't really need the money, but on the other hand, it gets old, and the $20 helps pay for a dinner out or a movie for me and my wife. She used to complain about my being gone, so I came up with the brilliant idea, I split the money with her. So if I'm gone for a 2 hour computer call, and I come home with $40, she gets half. Now when someone calls for help, she smiles and says, "off you go". Bottom line, a little bit of money makes everyone happy :).
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Only twice in 10 years have I encountered people who didn't have the money to pay for service, elderly/retirees included. One, a small rural shop that would have required a 40-minute drive was surprised that I wanted $95/hour, and the other actually called back after ringing around for a cheaper rate/faster service. I even get the followup calls from customers of another guy who charges almost half my rate, but can't cope beyond a GUI.
My experience is that retirees/elderly are more than happy to pay for a house call - just like it was half a century (or more) ago. They don't like burrowing under desks to unplug or re-plug cables, and they see value in service at their home. They also have a network and I get lots of work by referral. When they ask for 2 or 3 of my business cards, I know I'll see some new customers within a week or two.
Ask your parents to ask their friends who looks after their computers, then pick the one with the best reputation, and don't try to beat down his/her hourly rate.
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
My situation is exactly the same. My parents are also retirement age, and have no IT knowledge; and I am an IT professional with a demanding, full time job.
I solved the same problem in a much simpler way. I am always happy to help them with some stupid IT-related problem, any time, day or night. Even though they live several hours away, I will get into the car at a moment's call, and come on over, if it becomes necessary.
It's the least I could do. I could never hope to repay them for giving me the gift of life, and for all the love they raised me, from birth to adulthood. I consider helping them, with some stupid computer issue, the least I could do.
Typical distortion-field bullshit. For a decade Apple says that PowerPC is better than Intel, then as soon as they switch all of a sudden it was never about the hardware.
Insightful?
Siddown, and le Uncle Ol give ya some learnin' Cuz you got yerself a mighty fine distortin' field going yourself, if I do say so.
The PowerPC was a mighty fine piece of CPU. But there was one really big problem with it. 'n it were a doozie.
It was too damn big. I had me a dual core G5 Powermac back in th' 2 ought ought 5 day, and the heat sink and the CPU were around the size of a Mac mini.
It generated a lot of heat too, I had 4 fans in the damn thing, and when I was doing 3-D rendering, it was like a Thunderscreech takin' off. Okay, I exaggerate, a 707.
But it was a fine piece of computin' at the time.
But those honkin' CPU's were hell to fit inside a Macbook - they were a nuisance inside a G5 iMac as well, generatin' plenty of heat. And IBM never ever came up with a small enough PowerPC CPU. Even if they could stuff one in a happy, jus imagine all that heat a-crispin yer testicles up. Yowee!
Soooo, old Apple, they just figgerd that rather than fall behind in the pony power department in it's laptops, and that IBM was never gonna smallify them G5 chips enough - they done went Intel, and they done went to Unix.
Shore made Uncle Ol happy when they done did that.
And now you know.........The rest of the story. - Apologies to Paul Harvey.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
They are your parents. They aren't going to be around forever. I know you've heard that already. Here's my true story. My father never took to computers. My mother had been around them for decades. When the home PC craze started in the 90s I started getting her a new machine every year or so. Tried all kinds of things to simplify support - OS/2 instead of Windows 95, auto dialers to initiate connections. I was doing it all myself and it was frustrating at times. Remote access software made things easier as I was living about four hours away.
So once I updated something on my mother's computer - browser I believe - and she couldn't figure out how to print since the UI had changed. She called me on a Friday and I meant to call her back over the weekend but didn't get around to it. That Monday she got in her car to go somewhere and had a massive heart attack in the car in the driveway. She made it to the hospital but not much more than an hour maybe beyond that. I've always hated that I never called her back even though it was for something so small. I still feel a bit disappointed in myself now almost five years later.
The bottom line is you never know when, but at some moment everything is going to change. For your own sake I suggest you do whatever you need to but take the time to support them yourself. Most parents would,care less their computer is fixed and more that they are spending time with their child.
Have to agree. I don't use Apple stuff myself but I've watched them doing support with a 78-year old friend and they were amazingly patient and helpful.
There's another way, if you're willing to do some support .... a well set-up Linux box, which you update from time to time (maybe monthly?), should perform well. Non-techies have relatively simple needs and don't get into much trouble by clicking on "bad" stuff. Train them to avoid phishing and the like, and they'll be good to go.
Today most basic users just need a browser and something to view photos with.
My wife, the ultimate non-techie, uses a Linux box that I set up and she doesn't even know it's Linux, nor does she care.
I do limited support, like updating software every few weeks, and other than that nothing is really needed except on infrequent occasions.
That is the answer right there, we local PC shop guys have to deal with old folks all the time and have no problem with helping them when they need it, be it a yearly plan or pay as you go. I have several customers in their 70s and frankly have no issues with them, in fact they are generally less of an issue than the "know enough to be dangerous" younger types in that they actually listen to what you tell them. Finally what good is that support gonna do if the issue is with the network? A local shop guy can just go out there and fix it, that Indian phone guy is gonna be worthless.
So talk to the local shops, I'm sure you can find one that has good rates and is willing to take the load off of you.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.